It’s official: Staten Island drivers and business-owners who use the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge regularly will finally be able to avail themselves of deeply discounted tolls on the span as of the first of next month.

The toll for Staten Island residents with E-ZPass will drop to a reasonable $5.50 per round trip. And, after months of negotiations, the plan calls for a 20-percent rebate for trucks and other commercial vehicles that use the bridge more than 10 times a month.

Of course, all this is thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s direct intervention with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Staten Island bridge users are delighted at the announcement and so is anyone, such as Gov. Cuomo, who understands that the residents and business-owners of this borough bear a toll burden far greater than residents of anywhere else do. Even with the discounts, Staten Islanders still pay more per year in tolls than almost anyone else.

Staten Island MTA Board member Allen Cappelli exulted, “We eliminated the obstacles, got Albany on board . . . This was well-discussed and well thought out, and we’ve finally come to this day . . . I feel like doing the dance of joy.”

Giving long-suffering Staten Islanders a break on tolls at long last is simply the right thing to do, as fair-minded people would agree.

However, there are those who don’t see it that way, including on the MTA Board, which approved the discounts last week.

For example, board member Norman Brown said that the resident discount Staten Islanders could avail themselves of even before the latest toll plan was “already substantial . . . Do the math.” He told the New York Times, “I live in a little place called Brooklyn. We’re the ones that pay the toll that you’re always citing as a horrible toll.”

Yes, and people who live in that “little place called Brooklyn” have subways to get them into Manhattan in minutes. And even if they do drive, they can take all those toll-free bridges across the East River. Talk about a substantial discount. That’s a fact disgruntled residents of other parts of the city always seem to forget.

Meanwhile, other critics of the deeper discount for Staten Islanders pointed to the MTA’s always precarious finances and wondered if the discount was wise.

Another board member, Jeff Kay, said that the deeper discount might raise eyebrows in Albany when the MTA starts seeking new subsidies from the state later in the year.

The most vocal critic on this score is former MTA chairman Richard Ravitch, who showed up at the board meeting on his own to object to the Staten Island-only discount. He said it will sabotage the agency’s ability to negotiate with its unionized workers.

The MTA’s inevitable contention that it is operating under financial constraints “is inconsistent with voluntarily reducing the revenues of this authority,” he said.

For one thing, the discount will cost the MTA only $14 million a year — a pittance in terms of its overall budget. And the state will pick upthe cost. For another thing, Staten Island users of the Verrazano have been picking up a disproportionate part of the tab for the MTA’s sorry financial state for decades. Only in the universe of people such as Mr. Ravitch is that considered fair.

And frankly, we don’t recall Mr. Ravitch leading the MTA out of the fiscal wilderness when he as at the helm.

On the other side of the argument are transportation activists who insist that the additional revenue from higher tolls should be use to bolster existing mass transit.

That’s a nice idea except significant transit improvements take years to complete, Meanwhile, if these advocates have their Staten Island drivers will be paying for them with their higher tolls. And MTA mass transit service on Staten Island pales in comparison to what resident of other parts of the MTA service area enjoy. There’s no indication whatsoever that’s going to improve anytime soon.

By all means, the state and city should invest a lot more in mass transit, but not at the expense of already overburdened toll-payers.

For all the right reasons, Gov. Cuomo wanted the special discount for Staten Island and to his credit, pressured the MTA to offer it. The MTA board, deferring to his wishes, has now approved it, apparently with reluctance on the part of some members.

But we have a feeling that, like the one-way toll, the new discount will be under constant assault by people from other parts of the MTA region who have no problem with Staten Island drivers paying more than their fair share.